2006 ford escape 273000 on it. just purchased for cheap... 1st noticed battery light coming on and off intermittently... then noticed seemed sluggish when trying to pass 60mph, then noticed seemed like the truck was giving off a lot of heat under the hood, then the cluster panel shut off while driving about 10 times in one hour..... cannot find solution online but i feel all symptoms are tied in together... catalytic converter plugged? Need to replace coil packs? Fuse 27? relay? Water pump?.... found info on all these but cannot pinpont the problem/problems... please help

 

You might have got it cheap, but you're gonna put some money in it now.

Before you do anything else , you need to repair whatever is wrong with the charging system because just about everything mentioned so far relies on good electrical power. except the catalytic converter.
With that many miles if it was not regularly maintained , you have your work cut out for you.